Hi, My 3 year old recently complained of a stomach ache and then fell out onto the floor, eyes rolled back and to the left. Her body was stiff, but no jerking movements occurred. It lasted for 15 to 30 seconds, but she did not get "back to herself" for several minutes afterwards.
She had not eaten normally that day, but had just finished eating sugar-free jello and a red popsicle. She had also had a tangerine earlier. After having had a tangerine the night before she mentioned her mouth itched.
The docs said this could have been a blood sugar issue or a seizure. Have any of you experienced a similar thing and/or do you feel the artificial sweetener and/or red dye or even the tangerine could have caused this?
I have diagnosed migraines with which I lose feeling in the left side of my body and I pass out too, but the pain in the head's not so bad. Could this have been a migraine in my child?

just the simple fact the YOU get migrane and your child is female not male,would increase her chances of possibly eventually getting them too.(females appear to get these more than males) mine started when i was around 13,but i got these passed on by my fathers side,not my moms. what you explained really doesn;t 'sound' like true migrane,but i do know that there is something called "stomach migrane"? i do believe it has been mentioned on this board before. i don;t personally know a whole lot about it but others here have children who get these. hopefully someone will pop in here that has that experience.

it is interesting you asked about the red dye angle as just recently(about a year and a half ago) i started getting migranes from certain "red' things i had eaten. like those berry gummy life savers? got me real good. and there have been other things with red dye that i had eaten before and ended up with a migrane too but i had not yet made that connection at that point. don't know why this is,it is just something that can trigger migranes in predisposed people. there are many foods or additives that can trigger them too but it is very highly individual to that person. as i have gotten older(47 now,eww),new triggers still seem to be also poping up in me that i was fine with before til that certain point. very strange just what will trigger a migrane in any individual.

what you described really doesn;t 'sound' like a true siezure but then again,they can show themselves in very strange ways too.i would just really monitor what she eats in some sort of a journal or at lest list what she ate that day for the next few months,just so you DO know what is being taken in and ill know that if this happens again. this is what i did when like everything seemed to be creating migrane in me there for awhile. it really helps alot to just be able to turn a page and really see EVERYTHING,even little things,that i took in the day before. my migranes ALWAYS appear the day AFTER i eat a particular trigger food for some odd reason,don;t know why that is,it just is.

you may want to have her evaluated at her ped just so they are aware of this episode incase it should happen again. they can also do a neuro eval on her just to see how things are with her neuro status too. something could possibly show when actually evaled. this is one of those things that may never ever occur again or happen again next week,you know what i mean? just watch her a bit more closely and see how things go from here.

hopefully this wont ever occur again in her. please keep me posted as to what you find out or how things are going with her. marcia

Thank you so much for responding. We took her to the ER the night of the episode. There they did complete blood work up (she didn't even jump when they stuck her) and a CT. We stayed over night for observation. She is going to have an EEG. There's only one pediatric neurologist around here so it's scheduled for July! Her Ped is trying to up the appt.
The more we think back on the episode the more confused we become! Maybe she just had a migraine. The sun was flashing in her eyes through the window.

My first migraine that my mom can remember was when I was 5. My nephew had his first we noticed at 5 too. With his the light just hurts his eyes. He doesn't really complain of a bad headache. Both my mom and dad have migraines. My mom has the typical symptoms, but my dad has the kind where his vision goes crazy but no real pain. Maybe this is just something similar to one of those.

the thing about migrane like alot of other syndromes is they can present themselves in really crazy ways. it sounds like from what you have described with your family history,that every individual appears to have their very "own' presentation not always the normal classic presentation of aura,then migrane thing. so this could be what may be going on with your daughter too. they are just very crazy,thats all i know. mine have presented differently at times for some reason too,but 'my' normal is the aura with the screwed up vision any zig zaggy crap then migrane.

one possible way to get that appt moved up would be to see if you can get on their cancellation list? it may be kind of a more sudden appt,but it is worth a shot there ya know? i have done this many times with all the freaking speacialists i have to see and my son too. just a thought that could get this done much much sooner. thats one heck of a long wait but not unusual when trying to see a specialist,for just about anything.

hopefully there are just her way of presenting migrane and nothing more. please keep me posted as to what you find out. good luck with this,marcia